Last Train Home
April 9, 2021

I’m excited to be among the authors represented in this fine collection of poems and poets. My two poems in the book are the following:
railroad crossing
this time
I’ve been given
Agnes Eva Savich
I wrote that poem while waiting for a very long passing train at a crossing in rural Wisconsin, while visiting my parents. Instead of being annoyed at the endless boxcars going by slowly, I relaxed and let my mind wander and daydream. The microcosm of unexpected free time I had no control over became time in the larger sense; the gift of life and the time we have on Earth.
a train fades
the sound of women
talking in rain
Agnes Eva Savich
This was written at a ranch retreat in Texas Hill Country, where I was on a long weekend away with women friends I had known for over a decade via an online forum. We came from all over the country to have a glorious meet-up in person, many of us meeting for the first time. A huge covered porch looking over a creek and forest kept us dry and a freight train somewhere near would pass by several times a day with a loud but soothing sound.
My relationship with trains goes back to the summer of 1998, when I embarked on 3 months of travel following my Junior year abroad in France.
This Inter-Rail pass got me through the countries of France, Spain, Morocco, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, and England.

I’ve also held some colorful internal train passes through my travels, such as my Carte Orange, which required a monthly pass purchase for unlimited Paris Metro rides, a one week pass for London’s tube system, and a TGV pass for a Paris-Lyon trip:

My favorite train image comes from the inside of Lyon Metro electric driverless train, pretty high tech for the late 90s:

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little review of my time with trains, and hope you’ll consider purchasing this book for some armchair train travel:
Last Train Home is available on Amazon in various countries. You can also drop into the Last Train Home -haiku Facebook page for more poems, photos, and stories related to the book and train travel in general.
Other stops on the virtual train tour:
Sharing a train window on Wild Ink, from editor Jacquie Pearce
April 9, 2021 at 9:20 pm
Thanks for sharing, Agnes! It’s fun to see the photos and tickets from your late 90s European trip. I hope it’s okay for me to share your link on my Sharing A Train Window post.
April 9, 2021 at 9:26 pm
Thanks! Yes, please include with the others, that would be great!
April 9, 2021 at 9:28 pm
[…] Haiku poet Agnes Eva Savich shares some of her train haiku and images from her 1998 European train t… […]